(Hover over the link to read Ecclesiastes 7:1-14).

This morning, notice that mankind has an inability to discern what is best for himself (so God has to tell him what is best), and what God is doing. We must live according to God's design.

In the first part of this passage, Solomon contrasts what we think is better vs. what God things is better.

1. We want: the finest things life can offer. What is better: A good reputation and character, because that lasts beyond the grave. (Ecclesiastes 7:1)
2. We want: to celebrate and have a fun time. What is better: To face the reality of death, because you learn what is important in life. (Ecclesiastes 7:1-2)
3. We want: laughter. What is better: To have sorrow and frustration, because it agrees with reality. It lives in real life, not in denial. This is healthy, and allows you to deal with life in the right way! (Ecclesiastes 7:3)
4. We want: pleasure. What is better:mourning, because it makes you wise when you reflect on reality. (Ecclesiastes 7:4)
5. We want: to be flattered. What is better:to be rebuked, because can make you better. (Ecclesiastes 7:5)
6. We want: to laugh like a fool. What is better:to be wise, because laughter is futility. But, even the wise can be corrupted. (Ecclesiastes 7:6-7)
7. We want: to start many things. What is better:to finish things. Its exciting to begin things, but hard to finish them. (Ecclesiastes 7:8)
8. We want: to be proud, impatient and have what we want. What is better:to be patient of spirit, because that submits to what is really best rather than what you think is best. (Ecclesiastes 7:8)

Solomon then contrasts the foolish and the wise:

Fools: are quick to anger, longs to live in the past, runs from adversitiy. (Ecclesiastes 7:9-10)

Wise: are slow to anger, handles money well to navigate the needs of the day, learns to live now. (Ecclesiastes 7:11-12)

The conclusion:

Man cannot resist God's providence (Ecclesiastes 7:13). Whatever God wants to do, God will do, and man cannot resist or question Him. It was God who made the situation crooked, or bent, and you can't fight against it.

We are all in a world that is evil, and evil comes for you (Ecclesiastes 9:12). There are apparent injustices that we cannot aright in this world (Ecclesiastes 8:14), where the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. Asaph in Psalm 73:1-13 also had a problem with this, until he saw that God would ultimately right the injustice (Psalm 73:18-19)!

We can't look at what other people have and what they are doing. We have to look at our own lot, and what God would have us do with it.

The righteous are not exempt from trouble in a sin-cursed world. This trouble and injustice come from 1. the general effects of living in a fallen world, or 2. God may have put the trouble in your life to test you, discipline you, or accomplish a purpose, or 3. the effect of a specific sin from your life, bringing trouble upon yourself. But all this injustice serves ultimately to serve God's purposes.

What is the God's design for the adversity in your life? (Ecclesiastes 7:13 wants us to consider God's possible purpose for this.) Perhaps the design is to turn you from trivial pursuits to a serious pursuit of God, or to convince you of a false step or bad path that you have taken, to correct remaining  sin, to discipline you for a sin (Psalm 94:8-13), or to prevent you from sinning, or to show forth the power of God's grace in you.

Everyone knows what is most pleasant to themselves, but God knows what is better.

Application:

Be happy in times of prosperity, but when there is trouble, then consider (Ecclesiastes 7:14) that God has made both times of prosperity and trouble in your life. See it as God allowing the trouble and bringing the trouble: that's wisdom. Learn that God knows best, even though its not the path we'd normally choose.

This is part three of a a mini-series on prayer based on our Sunday School discussion last week. If you missed them, here is Part 1 and Part 2.

Is the answer more rigor? More discipline? Better schedules?

No doubt, a little bit of discipline can do us all good. Consider 1 Tim 4:8, for instance.

But if we merely approach this problem with more discipline, more resolve, doesn't this smack a bit of battling a problem with the flesh (e.g., worldliness) using the weapons of mere flesh? Is this really going to work?

Here, another quote from Andrew Murray's A Prayer Life is instructive: "As soon as the Christian becomes convinced of his sin in this matter, his first thought is that he must begin to strive, with God's help, to gain the victory over it. But alas, he soon experiences that his striving is worth little, and the discouraging thought comes over him, like a wave, that such a life is not for him - he cannot continue faithful!"

Most Christians can, I think, sympathize with the following vicious cycle. 1. Become convicted that you don't pray enough. 2. Resolve to pray more. 3. Make lists and schedules. 4. Follow the schedule for a few days. 5. After a few days or weeks, realize you've been totally ignoring the schedule. 6. Give up and become discouraged.

The problem with this approach is that prayer is being approached as a to-do list. When all along, prayer is a relationship. A relationship requires two way communication, and most healthy relationships in this world experience regular communication several times a day. Any less than that, as any married person can tell you, the relationship will start to deteriorate and grow distant.

So also our relationship with God. God speaks to us through his Word, the Bible, when the meaning is rightly interpreted and in proper context. We speak to God through prayer. Like in any relationship, both these elements must happen regularly for the relationship to remain healthy. (Here, I am speaking of our day-to-day relationship with God, not our salvific standing before God, which can never change once saved by the blood of Christ)

So, the only real cure to prayerlessness is to understand that prayer is a necessary element of a right relationship with God.

So, what does this mean in our struggle with prayerlessness? Surprisingly, it means this: Stop focusing on prayer! Start focusing on God, who is revealed to us most clearly in Jesus Christ.

We need to stop thinking of prayer as a religious ritual or magic mantra. There is no power in prayer in and of itself. All the power is in God. We need to start focusing on God, meditating on his wonders and glories, think about what he's done for us in Christ, rest and rejoice in that, and let our joy flow into a burning desire to pour out our hearts, our praises, our yearnings, our thanksgivings, our struggles, and our petitions.

One more thing: Looked upon this way, prayer is intimately connected to worship. Our deepest prayers burst out of a fountain of worship for God. Our worship, of course, stands upon our knoweldge of who God is. Our knoweldge of God depends upon our knowledge of His Word.

So, here's the practical takeaway. If you struggle with prayerlessness, read the Bible!

Next time: What prayer is and isn't.

This is part two of a mini-series on prayer based on our discussion in Sunday School. Read Part 1 here.

Andrew Murray sums up the experience of prayerlessness well: "How many there are who take only five minutes for prayer! They say that they have no time and that the heart desire for prayer is lacking; they do not know how to spend half an hour with God! It is not that they absolutely do not pray; they pray every day - but they have no joy in prayer, as a token of communion with God which shows that God is everything to them."

See, prayerlessness doesn't necessarily mean we never pray at all. It simply means that we don't pray very deeply, or with much commitment, or with any joy.

Sure, we still think its a good idea to pray, and we generally still pray before meals, before bed, at church, and all the usual places. We tell ourselves that if we had more time, we would surely spend it in prayer. It's just that we're too busy, right?

Prayerlessness, of course, displeasing to God, as we've established in the last post. But here's the thing: Prayerlessness is not the real problem. The majority of the time, its merely a symptom of a far more serious problem. And its not poor time management. The problem is a deficient spirital life.

So what causes the deficient spiritual life? I believe we can identify three main causes.

First, there is our problem of self-sufficiency. Obviously, when we don't pray, what we're really saying is that we think we can get by on our own power. This is utter foolishness. If we were thinking rightly, we would understand that the busier we are, the more we ought to pray. Do we really want to be solving our problems apart from God?

Second, there is our problem of worldliness. The Bible is clear that there are two types of people: people who walk according to the Spirit, and people who walk according to the flesh (Galatians 5:16). When our lives are filled with dissipation (Ephesians 5:18), all the desire to pray is choked out of us.

What does a life of dissipation look like? It can simply be overindulgence of worldly pleasures...some of which might not be evil in and of themselves. We are tempted to gorge ourselves on television, entertainment, movies, the internet, facebook, news, sports, or even work. All of these things can be good, but when we saturate ourselves with them, we are living lives of unbalanced dissipation.

The more we indulge our flesh, the more fleshly-minded we become, and the less we are inclined to pray. How can we if our faculties are all occupied with satisfying our flesh? (When's the last time you sat down and watched 5 hours of T.V. and then had a burning desire to pray?)

Third, there is the problem of our lack of faith. Jim George says: "Prayer is an act of faith. It is talking to someone you can’t see about something you don’t have with no visible means of attaining it." If we lack the faith to believe that God answers prayer as he has promised (even if the answer does not come instantly, but perhaps 25 years from now), or that God is indeed even listening, we will find scant reason to pray. We must constantly remind ourselves that God indeed commands us to pray, and has promised he will hear us because of the blood of Christ.

So, if you're struggling with prayerlessness, take a moment and reflect whether one of these reasons reflects what's going on in your heart. If so, let's repent of it today and get serious about prayer. Or, perhaps you think there are other reasons that I missed?

Next time: How do we fix our prayer life?

(Note: This week in Adult Sunday School, we introduced the topic of prayer, which will continue to be the focus of our Sunday School for the next few months. I thought I'd expand some of the key points we discussed together last Sunday into a series of short blog posts, each covering a different portion of the discussion. The hope is that these posts will remind us to pray! The only disclaimer is that this was, and will continue to be, an exceptionally busy week, so I'll start here, and we'll see how far I get!)

Many of us, myself included, struggle with prayerlessness. Most of us who struggle with prayerlessness actually desire to pray, and know that its a bad idea to be prayerless.

But exactly how displeasing to God is it to be prayerless? And is prayerlessness actually a sin?

Well, insomuch as sin is a violation of God's command, I think we must categorize prayerlessness as a sin (1 Thess 5:17, Colossians 4:2-3, 1 Timothy 2:1-2). But prayerlessness is not the type of sin that is actively committed. It is more a state of being. You don't actively try to be prayerless...rather, one day, you just look up and "find" yourself to be in a state of prayerlessness. It is a sin of omission, a passive sin.

In order to understand the severity of the situation, so that we would be motivated to repent of this particular sin, we must first understand why prayerlessness is so displeasing to God.

We talked about two reasons this week in Adult Sunday School that prayerlessness is displeasing to God. The first reason, already mentioned above, is that prayerlessness violates God's direct command to pray. The Bible is filled with commands to pray, examples of others praying, God answering prayer, etc. Jesus set an example of prayer everywhere he went. And Jesus essentially assumed that his disciples would pray, as if it were unthinkable that they would not (for instance, when he gave the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11:2-11:4, Jesus says "when you pray, say" and not "if you pray, say..." ).

A second reason that prayerless is so displeasing to God is that prayerlessness is an insult to God. Andrew Murray writes in his book The Prayer Life, "There is the holy and most glorious God who invites us to come to him, to hold converse with him, to ask from him such things as we need, and to experience what a blessing there is in fellowship with him. He has created him we might find our highest glory and salvation. What use do we make of this heavenly privilege?"

God has bought our privilige to pray at great cost to Himself. Jesus suffered, bled, and died so that the veil of the temple could be torn in two, and so that we could have direct access to God. It is only because of this that we can pray and have God hear us at all. God then graciously invites us to have fellowship with him through prayer, which is only possible because Jesus brought us to God. In this sense, its not a stretch to say that Jesus died so that you could pray (1 Peter 3:18).

When we don't pray, we're implicitly saying that God's gift of Jesus Christ is of little value, that its only worth a minor piece of our attention, a place in the peripheral part of our lives after we get done with all the stuff that's more interesting and important. Wow. Dare we indulge prayerlessness?

Next time, we'll examine the question: What are the root causes of prayerlessness?

1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men— 2 a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God has not empowered him to eat from them, for a foreigner enjoys them. This is vanity and a severe affliction. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he, 4 for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity. 5 It never sees the sun and it never knows anything; it is better off than he. 6 Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not enjoy good things—do not all go to one place?” 7 All a man’s labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied. 8 For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living? 9 What the eyes see is better than what the soul desires. This too is futility and a striving after wind. 10 Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is. 11 For there are many words which increase futility. What then is the advantage to a man? 12 For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few years of his futile life? He will spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

Until God opens the eyes of man to see the truth, it is impossible to be satsified.

Today we will notice another affliction upon mankind. Solomon investigates: what are the things that you pursue to bring satisfaction in your heart?

1. Wealth and Honor.
   • Solomon notices an evil (Ecclesiastes 6:1), a cruel irony, prevalent in the world, that although a man has been given wealth and honor by God, God does not couple that gift with the ability to enjoy what he had (Ecclesiastes 6:2).
   • We begin to think: if this is true, what kind of unfair twist is this?
   • Not only does God not give the ability to enjoy wealth, but a further irony; a stranger will eat from his riches. Not family and friends, but a stranger (Ecclesiastes 6:2).
2. Family
   • Solomon then does something else: maybe having a bigger family and more children will bring satisfaction! (Ecclesiastes 6:3) But he finds that a person can be blessed with abundant offspring and long life and yet be absolutely miserable.
   • He's just like a stillborn baby, who enters the world devoid of lie, never sees the sun, but dies without knowing the pain of having everything but not being able to enjoy any of it (Ecclesiastes 6:4-5).
3. A Long Life
   • He then looks toward a long life (Ecclesiastes 6:6) but concludes that the end of everything is death anyways, so what is the point?
   • Without the joy that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ, it is better to miscarry than to have lived at all.
4. Work
   • Its never enough, and it never satsifies (Ecclesiastes 6:7)
   • Its an endless cycle. I go to work to pay the bills to eat fruit so I can work to pay the bills to eat fruit.
5. Education and Wisdom
   • Its all futile. What's the point? (Ecclesiastes 6:8)

Remember though, that in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26, this is all reevaluated in light of God. God is the one who gives the ability to enjoy what they have. Who is sovereign? God is!

 Solomon cannot find anything that will fill his heart without bringing God into the equation. He cannot find anything without sticking his head above the clouds and asking God for help!
 
Solomon continues in Chapter 6 ... Mankind must then face the barebones realities:

1. God is sovereign. In fact, man is unable to change what God has ordained (Ecclesiastes 6:10).
2. Mankind is not sovereign! Yet in his humanity, he tries to fight against the creator (Ecclesiastes 6:10). But he will fail...God is stronger than you!

Man cannot get what he wants when he wants it...because of the fundamental truth that man is dependent on God in all things spiritual and all things temporal.

So why do we think we can quarrel with God and win? This accomplishes nothing! (Ecclesiastes 6:11).
 
Man lacks the ability to alter the character of life under the sun. Man cannot predict the future. Apart from God, his life is futile.(Ecclesiastese 6:12)

Man cannot get any satisfaction apart from God! God is in control, you are not! He made the world, you didn't. He has control over sickness and death, you don't. Even satisfaction and joy, he has the power to give it, you don't.

So if you ever find satisfaction in this life, it will not be by fighting with him, but it will be by <i>submitting</i> to him. And when you know Christ and begin to know the mind of Christ, you will begin to get satisfaction. Why? Because he will show you why you are here, where you are going, a bright hope and future beyond the grave.

And in this, you will receive a joy and satisfaction in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And you will find satisfaction not in the things of the world, but in your relationship with Christ. And it will be a glowing relationship in which the glow of the world will grow dim in the light of his grace.

So Solomon has done us a favor and saved us time to figure all this out for ourselves. After all has been investigated, the conclusion is "Fear God and keep his commandments!"
 
 It also means that when we get our satisfaction rattled, we have to respond the right way..."Blessed is the name of the Lord!" God has allowed it, both adversity and blessing, and remember that everything he does in your life (if you're a believer) is to for your good, and to bring you into conformity with the character of Jesus Christ.

1 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven— 2 A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. 3 A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up. 4 A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance. 5 A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. 6 A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away. 7 A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak. 8 A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace. 9 What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? 10 I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. God Set Eternity in the Heart of Man 11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; 13 moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor—it is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him. 15 That which is has been already and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by.

The message of the book of Ecclesiasties, written by Solomon is: You can't live life of any meaning without God.

Ecclesiastes is a book written from human reasoning. Solomon, playing the role of one who does not consider God, is assembling information through human reasoning only, and then comes to a conclusion based on only human reasoning. The wisest ever is investigating life, tries ot make sense of it from human reasining, and recording his observations. His conclusion is that life is absurd; there is no meaning in human existence! Solomon finds out that every single adventure: money, sex, wine, pleasure-seeking...they are all empty. The only meaning for one without God is despair.

In Chapter 3, we come to a fameous poem. He is really telling us that life is measured according to its events.

Have you ever considered time? Time is a measured period in which things happen. It leads us to the understanding that the wise person knows that human beings are not in control of their time. There are 86,400 seconds every day. What do you do with that time? And even though you're given that time, you cannot repeat, relive, give back, or do over time.

And someday, time will end. So we ought to invest it wisely while we have it, and find ways to enjoy it while we can.

So this poem in Chapter 3 is really stating that every activity on the earth has its time. Solomon is observing repeatable events; whereever you live in human history, you will experience these cyclical events. Doesn't happen at the same time in the same order for everybody, but it happens.

In Verses 2-8, he gives 7 contrasts of live under heaven.

1. Time for birth, time for death (Ecclesiastes 3:2). No person, even plant life, controls the start or end of its existence. Likewise, a harvester must time his harvesting and planting activities to the natural and proper time of the harvest, or he won't get anything. Are you getting ready to do things in their appointed time?
2. Time of destruction and times for constructing (Ecclesiastes 3:3). There are times of war, times of rebuilding.
3. Time for pleasantness and unpleasantness (Ecclesiastes 3:4). Laughter doesn't accomplish much, we don't learn much from it, but it is necessary, and God wants us to have times of laughter and enjoy life (Ecclesiastes 2:2).
4. Time to affirm, a time to confront (Ecclesiastes 3:5). Time to stop progress, a time to start progress.
5. Time to keep something, a time to throw it away (Ecclesiastes 3:6).
6. Time to mourn and a time to stop mourning.(Ecclesiastes 3:7). This might be talking about the Biblical act of mourning, where he would tear his clothes while mourning, and when the mourning was done, they would sew them back together.
7. Time for love, time for hate (Ecclesiastes 3:8).

In these verses there are opposite situations; but there is really no pattern. These are things that happen in time, they go on and on no matter where you live. The conclusion is that you cannot stop them; you can only respond th them when it is their proper time.

The conclusion of these obsservations is in Ecclesiastes 3:9. The worker gains no profit despite all his toil! Things in the list seems to cancel out each other, and in the end there is no profit.

So, in Ecclesiastes 3:10, he is forced to bring God into the equation. He realizes that without God, he cannot make sense of this. But the right way to look at it is that God appoints these tasks and times for men. All the events of life are futile and empty without God (Ecclesiastes 2:25-26). A worldview without God is a completely hopeless worldview.

In the verses following, Solomon now considers God, and lists 3 main things that God does. Each of these things have a proper human response.

1. What God makes (Ecclesiastes 3:11). 1. He makes everything, 2. He makes us inquisitive about the future. But, he cannot discern it. Response: Trust God! Recognize that God has designed things on earth to keep to a specific purpose, that is, to keep men and women in their place, and to remind them that He is in charge.
2. What God gives (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13). He gives 1. ability to enjoy life, 2. the ability to do good, 3. the ability to eat or drink, 4. the ability to enjoy your labor.Response: Rejoice! Recognize that all these things are gifts of God. Enjoy the gift of food! Do good, and enjoy a sense of purpose. Do your work heartily, because it fulfills you, gives you purpose, gives you an understanding of accomplishment. We can get purpose and meaning from our work! However, if God is not part of your equation, there will be no ultimate purpose or meaning of your life.
3. What God does (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15). God does things 1. Permanently, 2. Completely. 3. Glorifies himself (see also Ecclesiastes 7:18, Ecclesiastes 12:13). Response: Fear God. Recognize that God is God, and people are but human. Recognize that God does things to bring himself respect and honor, to focus the attetion of human beings upon Himself. And his purposes cannot be thwarted. Fear God in both these sense: 1. be frightened into submission, and 2. give Him great respect. God is a sovereign and unscrutable Deity.

Application: See what God has made, what God has gives, and what God does. We are to look, we are to learn, we are to respond properly to what he's doing, so that God receives the honor, glory, praise, and He always receives from us proper worship.

God patiently repeats things over and over and over again until these lessons are learned, or until the end comes (Ecclesiastes 3:15)!

Application: In light of the fact that God is sovereign and in control, when things happen in our lives, is our instinct to immediately go to the Lord to ask him to teach us what we need to learn, to glorify Himself in our situation, and to proclaim your trust in Him?

Application: Learn to do things in balance, learn to do thing for the glory of God, and learn to enjoy life.

Application: recognize your privilige and blessings. You should have nothing to complain about!

Application: We need to get this message out to those who don't know God!

22 But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. 23 Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you. 24 Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. 25 Grace be with you all.

Here at the end of the book of Hebrews, the author reminds us to hold fast to the testimony we have in Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 12:1 indicates that we are in a race, which we entered the moment we came to Christ. We are determined to cross the finish line. However, it is not a race to determine how fast you run, or how you do relative to others. Its simply to cross the goal.

We need to think of the Christian life as a foot race, kind of like a cross-country race. We must finish the race, run the race well, despite all obstacles.

Here in the end of Chapter 13 the author of Hebrews gives us a final exhortation.

There are 3 things you will need to continue in so that you can run to the end and finish the race well.

1. You have a continuing need to bear with this word of exhortation. (Hebtrews 13:22)
   • The imperative is "bear with." We're instructed to not only read the word of God but to pay attention to the details of it. The question is: What has changed in your life since hearing the Word of God?
2. You have a continuing need to take notice of and greeting fellow believers (Hebrews 13:23-24)
   • Timothy was probably in jail at this point because he was preaching the gospel.
   • We ought to take notice even of those who are imprisoned for their own sin. Because if the church does not take notice of them, no one will. Remember Hebrews 12:8, which says that God disciplines his children in order to restore them.
   • Don't look down on people our society would consider "human trash." Psalms 14:3 Reminds us that there is no one who does good, not even one. We must remind ourselves that we are no better than the vilest offenders.
   • Don't just live for yourself in your own little world.
   • You ought to greet your leaders, show kind affection to those who bear an office in the church (Hebrews 13:24). The attitude you should have for them is a welcoming attitude, praying for them.
   • You should also greet all the people of God (Hebrews 13:24), the true members of the visible church, whoever and wherever they are.
   • There are no cultural barriers in Christ! Italians are like Hebrews are like every other culture and race, social or political class, bonded together in Christ. In Christ, all prejudices should be broken down.
3. We have a continuing need for thinking of and practicing God's grace. (Hebrrews 13:25)
   • Divine grace is commonly used in beginning and end of Christian letters. But why is grace so important?
   • We must always be thinking about and understanding God's grace if we are to finish this race.
   • We need to understand God's grace, so that we could hedge against the temptation to be "grace abusers" (antinomianism, takes liberty to an extreme) or "grace killers " (legalism, emphasize works over grace)
   • Justification means that even though i still periodically sin, and find myself unable to stop sinning on a permanent basis, God declares me righteous when I believe.
   • The progressive maturity of a believer after this point is called sanctification
   • Here are 7 occurances of "grace" in Hebrews: Hebrews 2:9, Hebrews 4:16, Hebrews 10:29, Hebrews 12:15, Hebrews 12:28 (the word "gratitude" in NASB is the same word as "grace"), Hebrews 13:9, Hebrews 13:25.